Consumer product manufacturers routinely include or associate a premium with product packaging for promoting the sale of the product beyond the marketability of the product alone. Generally, the premium is a relatively inexpensive item provided to the consumer as a purchase enticement without increasing the purchase price. The premium may be an engagement on a package panel that requires some level of consumer interaction, such as a printed maze, a connect-the-dots pattern, or a composite image concealing a hidden sub-image. Alternatively, the premium may be an impact promotional item, such as a coupon, toy, or novelty item, inserted into the product package. One familiar example is a child's toy inserted in a box of breakfast cereal. Typically, the impact promotional item is retrieved from the product package after the package is opened and/or the product is at least partially consumed or otherwise removed.
Placing impact promotional items inside the product package, as is conventional, suffers from several significant disadvantages. Because the item is concealed from view, the manufacturer cannot verify that a premium is actually present in any particular product package. The promotional item is typically dropped by hand into the product package, which adds labor cost and slows production. If the promotional item is missing from the product package due to human error, complaints from dissatisfied consumers may reduce the product's and/or company's market appeal.
Printed advertising on the package exterior is required to indicate the existence of the hidden promotional item. Otherwise, the presence of the promotional item is undetectable by the consumer. Moreover, the visibility of only a representative image of the promotional item in the printed advertising on the exterior of the product package reduces its promotional value. Another disadvantage of in-package promotional items is that such items must be sanitized and wrapped before insertion into the product package to isolate the promotional item from the package contents.
What is needed, therefore, is a product package and method for its manufacture that overcomes the various deficiencies of associating an impact promotional item with the product package.